2 shot on Elmira Street

July 6, 2013

A shooting Thursday night shortly after the city's fireworks display concluded wounded two city teenagers, who are expected to recover from their injuries.

The shots were fired in the YMCA's Elmira Street parking lot.

Jan Matz, who lives in a home that abuts the Elmira Street lot, says that after her visitors left at 10:30 p.m. she went to a back window and saw "a big mob of people going back and forth. A lot of them, at least 50. All of a sudden I heard shots, but I didn't know if they were shots or fireworks. I got away from the window, and all these people were coming over our (backyard) wall and down the driveway."

Brian McFadden and Freda Goldy, both trained first responders, had watched the city fireworks from a porch on the north side of Fourth Street.

McFadden heard a series of six consecutive shots that he identified as gunfire.

"These didn't sound like fireworks - we were watching people set off cannons in the street, and these were quick pops. There was no 'whee,' and I heard one that was a ricochet for sure."

McFadden says that at once, he saw "a mass of 30 or 40 kids running out the alleys back to the church;" he says that a 12-year-old boy he knows told him "that was gunfire, that wasn't fireworks."

McFadden told the kids to take refuge in the basement of the church, Christ Community Worship Center, and then ran with Goldy to the scene of the shooting.

"We couldn't see anything - no one was there," Goldy said.

"We could smell the burning, and I noticed blood patches," McFadden said. "I guess there was a big black SUV that picked up (one victim) and took him to the hospital."

That victim, who is a 16-year-old male and Williamsport High School student, was wounded in the back and chest, according to the police report. He was immediately flown from Williamsport Regional Medical Center by helicopter to Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, where he underwent surgery and was listed in fair condition on Friday evening.

The other victim, a 19-year-old male and 2013 Williamsport High graduate, was hit in the right thigh and found near the intersection of Locust and Third streets. He was taken by ambulance to Williamsport Regional Medical Center.

City police say they found "numerous pieces of evidence" at the scene and will continue to investigate the case.

On Friday morning, orange paint marked 23 locations where police found evidence, beginning in the west end of the Elmira Street lot and snaking along Center Place to Center Street.